“Just ignore me. I’m a fly on the wall”
Are you serious? — Episode 56
Do you recognise this scenario?
Hannah, one of the directors, tells Joan, a Scrum Master, that she wants to have an invite for the Sprint Retrospective. Joan refuses because Hannah isn’t part of the Scrum Team. Hannah replies:
“This is a bad argument. Most of the issues that come from the retro are for me to resolve anyway. Just invite me for the retro. I’ll be a fly on the wall.”
Joan is put under a lot of pressure here. Still she refuses to invite Hannah. Is she right here? Well, I am convinced Joan is in her right:
“The Sprint Retrospective is an opportunity for the Scrum Team to inspect itself and create a plan for improvements to be enacted during the next Sprint.” — Scrum Guide 2017
Why Scrum Teams only?
So why would the Sprint Retrospective be for the Scrum Team only? Well, Scrum Teams are self-organising! They “choose how best to accomplish their work, rather than being directed by others outside the team.” — Scrum Guide 2017. The director doesn’t direct the Scrum Team. I like how the Agile Manifesto puts it:
“The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.” — principle of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development
You could argue: who says that the director, Hannah, wants to direct the team? True, she said she’d be a fly on the wall. She could be a true servant leader who wishes to help remove impediments. But this is already catered for in Scrum as one of the services of a Scrum Master towards a team:
“Removing impediments to the Development Team’s progress.” — Scrum Guide 2017
Scrum Values
“When the values of commitment, courage, focus, openness and respect are embodied and lived by the Scrum Team, the Scrum pillars of transparency, inspection, and adaptation come to life and build trust for everyone.” — Scrum Guide 2017
The Sprint Retrospective is an event where the Scrum Values play a major role. The team needs to have the courage to be respectfully open about how the team performed, committed to be focused on improvements. It’s hard enough to do this as a team, let alone if people from outside of the team are attending the retro. Every change to the composition of an event changes the dynamics. Some people will stop to speak freely, others may have a different agenda with a stakeholder from outside of the team present. This is something you wish to avoid.
Conclusion
Scrum Teams are self-organising. This is a big thing. Scrum Teams have Sprint Retrospectives to self-assess their way of working and make their own plans to improve. Upholding the Scrum Values of courage, commitment, focus, openness and respect is difficult enough within the team. It is getting more complicated by inviting others.
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